Wednesday, March 9, 2011

The U.S. government will be hit with a class action lawsuit on behalf of 700 Guatemalans who were infected with syphilis unless it offers a way to settle claims before Friday, the plaintiffs' attorneys said.

Law firms representing the victims said the United States intentionally infected the Guatemalans between 1946 and 1948 in an effort to study the effects of the disease.

The complaint compares it to the Tuskegee syphilis experiment in Alabama. During the 40-year study that began in 1932, doctors observed how the disease progressed in about 400 poor African-Americans, who already had syphilis. The men were never told they had the disease and never treated for it. The test subjects received free medical testing, meals and burial insurance.